Found and lost

First published on Union Songs website 29/1/2006 http://unionsong.com/u341.html
also published Al-Moharer Vol. 239 6/2/2006 http://al-moharer.net/mohhtm/j_tomlinson239.tml
and also The Word 2006.
and also New Community Quarterly Vol.4, No1 Autumn 2006 p.83

Angels dancing on my conscience
devils playing with my mind,
fanciful ideas: daydreaming nonsense,
portentous thoughts defined.

Authority’s extended licence,
pleading hands and deeply lined,
jumbled ideas all out of sequence
to asylum seekers we are blind.

Tangled lives and lost embraces
anguished times and razor wire
happy yet distorted faces
terrified but with hope afire.

Despatching people willy nilly,
preventing them from reaching shore.
Welcoming the gold encrusted,
rejecting desperate frightened poor.

Sending planes to watch ships sinking
doing nothing for the drowning,
we can’t claim that’s good thinking
I can see the gods are frowning.

Then at last gaunt undertakers
clean their best your cold remains,
leaving you to meet your maker
and justify such moral stains.

Angels dancing on my conscience
devils playing with my mind,
fanciful ideas: daydreaming nonsense
reality is hard to find.